Industry Engagement with Policy on Public Service Television for Children: BBC Charter Review and the Public Service Content Fund

Abstract

This article examines policy engagement by advocacy (Children’s Media Foundation, Voice of the Viewer and Listener) and industry groups (Animation UK and PACT) in the UK, who became intensely involved in debates about securing a better financial basis for UK-produced children’s television content as part of the yearlong process of BBC Charter review between 2015 and 2016. Pinpointing the key issues that emerged before and during the debate, the paper presents Government proposals for a contestable public service content fund separate from the BBC within the context of a) the problems that have bedeviled the funding of children’s television for over a decade, and b) different stakeholder positions on both the role of the BBC, and attitudes towards contestable funding. Findings, based on a stakeholder analysis, show that discussions were shaped by the competing concerns of these four groups, who adapted their positions to present a more united front in order to inform policy- making on the funding of public service children’s content. However, the narrative of policy engagement by these groups was highly contested, and confined to internal wrangling about access to public funding (i.e. the licence fee), rather than more existential issues about children’s continued engagement with public service values and culture.